Slots: Play slot games online
Back in 1895 the very first slot machine was created by a German immigrant to the US, a one Charles Fey. Fast forward
a hundred years and the slot machine, along with blackjack and the roulette wheel, is one of the most popular forms
of gambling in the world, with Australia and NSW in particular home to an ongoing craze of machine based gambling.
In recent years though, it’s also taken the online world by storm – following the 1995 arrival of the first slot
machines online. Whether you refer to them as one-arm bandits, fruit machines or plain old pokies, this article
serves as a guide to online slot machines.
In the 1980’s, slot machines began to use the computerised method of RNG – random number generation – and from
here the next big step was the jump to online platforms in the 1990’s. In 2007, you can even log into the virtual
world of Second Life and use your character to sit down at a virtual poker machine, to play for real money.
How To Play
To play slots online, you can either download slot machine software, or you can play online without downloading
by using a flash plug-in. There are in fact quite a few things to consider when selecting a game to play. How
many ‘reels’ and ‘pay lines’ there are, the highest jackpots recorded, whether there are ‘scatters’ (meaning
you can win without matching three symbols), or any other special features or bonuses.
The few important decisions you need to make are as follows; the coin size, the number of pay lines enabled, and
the number of coins per line.
As many sites are US based, or at least aimed at the US market, coin sizes usually run from one US penny ($0.01)
up to five dollars. You then choose how many pay lines you want enabled, i.e., how many you are betting on.
Basically, if you choose a coin size of $0.50 with 4 coins per pay line, you’re betting $2.00 on each enabled
pay line. Each machine has a payout schedule that tells you which combinations pays out what.
Progressive Slot Machines
If you have the time, you can win some big money. Progressive slot machines, like Fruit Fiesta, Major Millions, and
King Cashalot, are slot machines where every spin adds more money to the jackpot. If you’re lucky (and others
aren’t so lucky), you may hit the progressive jackpot, where some websites can set you up to win more than a
million dollars in real money.
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